Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
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16 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.16 LOUISVILLE LIP forestspringshc.com Derby hangover The April cover picture and Backboard are dis- gusting and beneath the class and legacy of the Kentucky Derby. Mary Spurgeon Brownstown, Indiana Your "Party Animal" feature was atrocious. It was not only in poor taste but it shamelessly promoted drunkenness. Your magazine has fnally reached our limit. Please unsubscribe us. David and Julie Magnuson Anchorage A young woman chugging alcohol? Really? What happened to responsible drinking? Did the EMTs treat her for alcohol poisoning after the party? This is NOT what Louisville should be celebrated for!!! Pat Bowen Neighborhood withheld I was surprised and disappointed that Louisville Magazine chose to glamorize this type of irrespon- sible drinking. I would imagine nearly everyone has been affected by addiction of one type or another, and we all know sitting and vomiting into the toilet is anything but funny. Teresa Reel Protenic St. Matthews You are not helping. A picture speaks a thousand words, and the cover of your Derby edition and several photos inside send the wrong message. You are promoting and glorifying the abusive use of alcohol. This is not the message young people need to see. We spend a great deal of time at Trinity teaching and encourag- ing our students to lead healthy lifestyles. Unfortu- nately, your April issue joins a loud chorus of media that encourages reckless and dangerous behaviors. We are not prohibitionists. The moderate and legal use of alcohol has its place in our society. Still, you must know that we have a national health crisis involving drugs and alcohol. Please use better discretion in the publishing decisions you make in this regard. It will beneft our community — and especially our young people. Rob Mullen, President Dan Zoeller, Principal Trinity High School I am greatly appalled with your recent Derby issue. The horse head on a female's body drinking a beer and then lying beside the toilet is the most inap- propriate, degrading, classless series of images. I am ashamed you published them. Derby season is a time when Louisville welcomes tourists and guests. I would be beyond embarrassed if a visitor picked up your current issue. Molly Reynolds Louisville This month's cover provides a splendid example of precisely how one shotguns a beer while wearing a horse-head mask. And it makes me homesick. Thanks! Laurie Gregory Anchorage, Alaska Cards forever Why did you print the long whine by Joe DePaolo in the March issue ("The Final Act," an open letter to Rick Pitino)? So his idol turned out to be a human being, imperfect as most human beings are. And even having the nerve to age. I found his rehashing of stuff that happened years ago ex- tremely inappropriate and distasteful. I thought Pitino was courageous to confront his extortion- ist. His reputation has certainly suffered, more than he deserves, in my estimation. We all know that these things are all too common among celebrities and ordinary people. Fortunately, we are usually spared the details I'm fascinated that people think Pitino could possibly be involved in the current scandal at U of L. It's completely illogical. Why in the world would he jeopardize his team, his future and his legacy? Why would he allow such things to occur in Billy Minardi Hall, which he named for his best friend and brother-in-law? What is the supposed beneft to the program? Rose. R. Isetti Louisville Your guess is as good as ours I really appreciate the coverage you extend to all of the metropolitan area. It is clear, inter- esting and informative on a wide variety of subjects on both sides of the river. I have a general question that maybe you can answer, or have answered. What are the geographical boundaries of the area known by most of us as "Kentuckiana"? I don't know who would be the offcial source of this information. I've lived here over 50 years in both states and don't know. I've enclosed a crude, hand-drawn map, which is my unoffcial opinion of where the LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.16 53 52 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.16 "It turns my stomach. And I've said it 100 times — I don't want to keep beating this — but I don't know why they did it. It doesn't make any sense to me. It makes no sense. And everybody who was involved hurt a lot of good people…And innocent people now will pay the price." — University of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino at a press conference addressing the university's self-imposed one-year ban from postseason play. Dear Coach Pitino, When I was seven years old and basketball meant the world to me, I discovered Born to Coach, the book you wrote chronicling your frst season leading an NBA team. Over the course of 11 chapters you told the story of the 1987-'88 New York Knicks — and became my idol. I loved Born to Coach so much that after I fnished it, I re-read the entire thing aloud to my mom. Sitting together at our dining room table, I read Mom a chapter every night after dinner. I did my best to skip the swear words. It wasn't easy. ("When I am fucking talking, you better be fucking listening!" you screamed at one of your more indiferent players.) I imagine the nuns at your old high school, St. Dominic's in Oyster Bay on Long Island — about 10 miles east of my childhood home in Little Neck — would have been none too pleased by your language. Me? I was about to make Holy Communion. Te F-word was of-limits. But when I got to the part when Boston Celtics forward Kevin McHale jokingly made a request of you on behalf of his teammate Danny Ainge, I thought he was just using some basketball jargon. "Hey, Rick," I read to Mom, repeating McHale's words, "will you stop breaking Danny's balls?" Mom couldn't stop laughing. An NBA rookie head coach at 35, you took my beloved hometown team, which couldn't get out of its own way a year earlier, and molded a squad that qualifed for the playofs and a meeting with the vaunted Boston Celtics. Larry Bird walked through A basketball fan's open letter to the coach he once revered. that door. Robert Parish walked through that door. McHale walked through that door. And yet your ragtag bunch — a young Patrick Ewing and not a whole lot more — went four games in a best-of- fve series. How did you and your guys do it? You wrote extensively about your maniacal practices. You once forced your team to line up, drive to the basket and make a combined 85 layups with their of hand…in two minutes. Tey were winded, but when they fell just one short, you made them do it again. You wouldn't settle for anything less than completion of the task. You demanded constant energy. Constant pressure. But dammit, they believed in you. By the spring of 1992, when I read Born to Coach for the frst time, you had recently sufered one of the most heartbreaking defeats in the history of sports. You and your Kentucky Wildcats versus the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament's East Regional Final. "Tere's the pass to Laettner," CBS announcer Verne Lundquist said innocently as Duke's Grant Hill fred a 75-foot inbounds pass down the court and into Christian Laettner's waiting hands. With 2.1 seconds to go, Laettner — back to the basket — took a quick dribble, turned around and launched the shot that changed his life. "Puts it up…YESSSSSS!" Te crowd exploded. Te players on Duke's bench stormed the court. You could hardly even make eye contact with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as you shook hands and promptly walked of. But that was a temporary setback. It wouldn't be long before you took the Wildcats all the way, winning a national championship in 1996. Ten it was on to the Celtics. You took over as head coach of the Cardinals in 2001. Won the title in 2013. Even got a back tattoo to commemorate that one. You're one of only 20 coaches in college basketball history to have eclipsed the 700-win mark. Tat gaudy total helped earn you induction in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. The Final Act? By Joe DePaolo Illustration by Rachael Sinclair